Empire State madness: Medicaid blob keeps growing
Posted By: Mercedes44, 11/29/2024 5:55:54 AM
Between Medicaid and the state’s Essential Plan, 8.5 million New Yorkers enjoy taxpayer-supported health coverage “for the poor” — but more than a third, 3 million, earn too much too qualify, reports the Empire Center. That’s roughly $20 billion a year in excess and potentially fraudulent spending, fostered by the progressive political class’ belief that the more people signed up, the better. The center’s Bill Hammond identified the mismatch by simply comparing the known enrollment numbers with the Census report on New York income levels. Created in the 1960s to serve the truly poor, the state-federal Medicaid program has gradually expanded to cover those with somewhat higher incomes; with its Essential Plan,
people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "Mercedes44"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Most Recent Articles posted by
Mercedes44"
Zelenskyy Thinks He Has Options, While
Putin Has an Undiscussed Weapon that Trump
Will Navigate 8 replies
Putin Has an Undiscussed Weapon that Trump
Will Navigate 8 replies
In the world of geopolitics created by the U.S. Dept of State and CIA, the pretending is thick.
A recent report has Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy now offering to give up territory to Russian President Vladimir Putin in exchange for NATO membership for the remaining portion. The story is sold by western media as if Zelenskyy has options, he doesn’t. However, Putin has a very strong weapon that President Trump has to navigate with a team of people around U.S. policy that are tenuous at best. Let’s discuss without the pretending.
Start with a Politico Article HERE, that frames the entry of President Donald Trump -
The Other American Border Towns
2 replies
If I asked you to think of the place that defines America, you might think of Washington, D.C., or Chicago, or Los Angeles, or monuments like Mount Rushmore, or Mount Vernon, or the Statue of Liberty. But for Andy Hickman, there is no place more American than the woods of upstate New York, where he grew up, and where he writes from for this month’s installment of his series, “Falling Back in Love with America.”
For the past month, Andy and his wife Keturah have been peering over the edge of America into Canada, from their perch in Churubusco, way up in New York State.
Class warfare is nothing new when it comes to the left. It’s a massive part of how liberals sow division among people who would otherwise get along. We see it in how Democrats always portray Republicans as only looking out for the interests of the rich, as though wealthy people are always the enemy. In the UK, the Labour Party has had power since July. Labour is a far-left party that has its roots in protecting the interests of labor unions and socialists. But today’s Labour Party is playing a different sort of class warfare game.
The Russia-North Korea-China relationship is not an equilateral triangle but an evolving alliance with conflicting interests, and reportedly beginning to show signs of fracture and lack of trust.
One report suggests that, ultimately, North Korea may dispatch 100,000 troops to Russia.
China nevertheless views Russia as principally a source of oil and raw materials. The Kremlin might hope to rejuvenate itself by re-asserting its failing primacy in Central Asia amidst the independent post-Soviet countries. The Russia-North Korea-China relationship is not an equilateral triangle but an evolving alliance with conflicting interests, and reportedly beginning to show signs of fracture and lack of trust.
Since Donald Trump’s reelection victory, some conservatives have discussed the possibility of using recess appointments, temporary appointments made while Congress is out of session, to fill positions in Trump’s new Cabinet. However, the discussions about recess appointments have generated more heat than light, with two groups frequently talking past each other.
Moreover, much of the discussion has focused on a scenario that seems unlikely to happen, could well get struck down in court if it did, and represents an unwise use of time and political capital. Herewith a few key points of analysis about the topic du jour inside the Beltway.
A pair of Tren de Aragua gangbangers tied to a wild Aurora, Colorado apartment invasion were arrested in a major NYC drug trafficking and credit card scam bust Wednesday that also netted an arsenal of deadly assault rifles, The Post has learned.
Denyeer Aramillo Meneses, 23, and Edison Pena Angulo, 25, were picked up during an early-morning raid in the Bronx by a gang task force led by the NYPD and US Homeland Security Investigation, according to law enforcement sources.
In total, 15 suspected members of the Venezuelan migrant gang were nabbed following a months-long investigation into narcotics trafficking and gang violence, the sources said.
Between Medicaid and the state’s Essential Plan, 8.5 million New Yorkers enjoy taxpayer-supported health coverage “for the poor” — but more than a third, 3 million, earn too much too qualify, reports the Empire Center.
That’s roughly $20 billion a year in excess and potentially fraudulent spending, fostered by the progressive political class’ belief that the more people signed up, the better.
The center’s Bill Hammond identified the mismatch by simply comparing the known enrollment numbers with the Census report on New York income levels.
Created in the 1960s to serve the truly poor, the state-federal Medicaid program has gradually expanded to cover those with somewhat higher incomes; with its Essential Plan,
A ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah took effect at 0200 GMT on Wednesday after U.S. President Joe Biden said both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France.
The accord clears the way for an end to a conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year.
Biden spoke at the White House on Tuesday shortly after Israel's security cabinet approved the agreement in a 10-1 vote. He said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati,
The Office of Management and Budget is a less well-known entity within the executive branch, but few are as critical for ensuring the implementation of the president’s agenda. President-elect Donald Trump has once again placed that awesome responsibility in Russ Vought’s hands.
The previous Trump OMB director will return to the White House, where he says there is “unfinished business on behalf of the American people.”
Trump released a statement announcing Vought’s nomination as OMB director on Friday evening. “I am very pleased to nominate Russell Thurlow Vought, from the Great State of Virginia, as the Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston suggested last week that he could use police officers to prevent federal immigration officers from entering his city to carry out mass deportations when President-elect Donald Trump returns to office.
"More than us having [Denver police] stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there," Johnston, a Democrat, told the news website Denverite. "It's like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun, right? You'd have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them."
Advisers to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reached out to the Health and Human Services Department multiple times after Donald Trump tapped him to lead the massive agency, hoping to jumpstart coordination before his takeover in late January. They were rebuffed.
Kennedy’s inability to communicate with the agency he may soon manage, confirmed by an administration official with knowledge of the episodes granted anonymity to describe internal deliberations, is just one consequence of the president-elect’s continued foot-dragging on signing the standard trio of ethics and transparency agreements with the federal government — something his team pledged to do shortly after the election.
As incredible and providential as Donald Trump’s election victory was, it’s hard not to shake the feeling that we’re living on borrowed time. By now, Democrats were supposed to be well on their way to solidifying a stranglehold on the American electorate, wielding their imagined “permanent Democratic majority” gained through entitlements, race hustling, and illegal immigration to ram through structural changes that would seal them in power forever. Instead, Republicans, with control of every branch of the federal government thanks to Trump’s magnificent run, have been gifted with one more bite at the apple. We squander this chance at our peril.
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
A top Democratic leader is pointing fingers at “MAGA” Republicans, accusing them of threatening Congressional Democrats on Thanksgiving— just one day after members of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks received bomb threats on their front doors. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) implicated that Trump supporters were hurling violent threats to Democrats with messages that included bomb threats and swatting— the practice of making prank phone calls to emergency services to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.
The Biden administration moved on Thanksgiving eve to bar future coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, one of America’s most coal-rich regions, according to multiple reports. The Pow der River Basin, a region that spans parts of Montana and Wyoming, accounted for about 43% of U.S. coal in 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The administration made its move to formally end coal leasing in the area and roll back previous approvals for development plans on Wednesday as Americans prepared to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, according to E&E News. “The decision is to make no federal coal
George Clooney Reportedly ‘Fuming’
After Being ‘Seduced by Barack Obama’
into Coup Against Biden 26 replies
After Being ‘Seduced by Barack Obama’
into Coup Against Biden 26 replies
Actor George Clooney was a key participant in the coup to push Joe Biden out of the 2024 election.
Radar Online reports that Clooney is now said to have expressed outrage at “being manipulated by former President Barack Obama into lobbying for Kamala Harris.”
Following Biden’s disastrous June debate performance, Clooney kicked off the calls to put old Joe out to pasture with a column for the New York Times demanding that he step aside.
He wrote for The Times, “We are not going to win in November with this president.”
Bill Clinton already wrote and sold his memoir, the imaginatively named, My Life, written and published back in 2005, but like his wife, one memoir is never enough and so Bill has another one, Citizen, that chronicles all the exciting stuff he’s been up to for the last two decades.
Hillary Clinton is on her fourth memoir (believe it or not) and Bill needs to pull his weight here. The trouble is that while Bill’s memoir 1.0 was at least justified because he was the president of the United States, he hasn’t done anything since then, unlike Hillary, who really didn’t do much, but at least is out there
Joe Biden's staffers have reportedly been 'triggered' by his inability to hold the tradition of the outgoing president taking 'departure photos' with White House employees.
Biden was set to depart the White House in January no matter who won after he declined to seek a second term in July.
Now, however, he'll be handing the presidency back to Trump after Kamala Harris was soundly beaten by Biden's predecessor. The staff, however, has apparently reached a new low in terms of morale, launching into unhappy groupchats about not getting their goodbye pictures.
Liberal women are sterilizing themselves in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s win earlier this month, according to a new report from Newsweek.
The outlet spoke to five women who are so concerned about losing access to abortions that they are having their fallopian tubes removed over the election results.
“If I am to be denied any rights in the next four (or more) years, I will not give them up without a fight,” 28-year-old Texas resident Lydia Echols told Newsweek.
A 39-year-old from Washington, who asked to remain anonymous, told the outlet that she has already undergone a bilateral salpingectomy, removing her fallopian tubes, over Trump.
San Jose State volleyball player Blaire Fleming built a prosperous athletic resume en route to the epicenter of national controversy. Many of Fleming's past competitors had to settle for losses along the way.
Fleming is the leader in kills for a San Jose State team that will compete in the Mountain West tournament final Saturday against Colorado State. The athlete's spiking ability has been a competitive asset and a point of outrage by critics, including President-elect Trump, amid the controversy over Fleming competing against women as a transgender athlete. But the team and coach Todd Kress have ridden the power of Fleming's spikes back to the conference final
John Morgan is a major donor to the Democrats and like many people in his party right now, he is unhappy about the way the Kamala Harris campaign burned through more than a billion dollars with little to show for it.
Morgan is now claiming that he never wanted Harris to be the 2024 Democratic nominee. He also suggests that no matter what she says about future runs for office, she is finished.
He recently appeared on FOX News to discuss this. Transcript via Real Clear Politics:
"She can never run for president again. She ran once and got zero delegates. She got 8% of California.
I begged them not to put her up.
Dems finally admit Biden botched border
after 2024 election loss: ‘We destroyed ourselves’ 22 replies
after 2024 election loss: ‘We destroyed ourselves’ 22 replies
WASHINGTON — Democrats spent Thanksgiving eating crow — privately confessing that President Biden’s handling of the border crisis fueled voter outrage and the Republican sweep of the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Lawmakers, aides and sources close to powerful Dems finally admitted after President-elect Donald Trump’s resounding victory over Biden’s successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, that the party’s permissive lurch on the border helped doom them in 2024. (Photo) “We destroyed ourselves on the immigration issue in ways that were entirely predictable and entirely manageable,” a Democratic senator confided to The Hill under the condition of anonymity.
“We utterly mismanaged that issue, including our Democratic caucus here.
Ellen DeGeneres’s new life in the quaint English countryside has gone dramatically wrong - after her dream home was swamped by astonishing flooding just days after she moved in.
The talk show superstar is living in an idyllic multi-million pound farmhouse in the Cotswolds after deciding to emigrate from the US in protest at Donald Trump’s election win.
But rather than enjoying a pastoral retreat, Ellen, 66, and her wife Portia De Rossi, 51, have been left at the mercy of raging floods which have engulfed their new multi-million pound mansion, MailOnline can reveal.
Ritzy NYC neighborhood rocked by surging
crime, including daylight carjackings
and brazen robberies 20 replies
crime, including daylight carjackings
and brazen robberies 20 replies
The Upper West Side has devolved into a Wild West atmosphere where anything goes, terrified crime victims and neighbors begging for more cops told The Post.
Criminals are more emboldened than ever in the ritzy nabe — with robberies soaring over 30% compared to last year — and carjackers so brazen they flashed their guns without concern on consecutive Sundays in broad daylight.
“I have never felt so scared in this neighborhood the way I feel now,” one of the carjacking victims told The Post this week. (Snip) The woman, who wished to remain anonymous for fear for her safety, had just parked her $245,000 2024 Mercedes G Wagon
Morale around the White House is low as staffers complain they won’t get the traditional parting gift of a photo with the president, according to Politico Playbook. It is tradition in the Biden White House that staffers, once they decide to leave the administration, get a photo with the president as a thank you for their contribution, Politico Playbook reported. But as the president has cancelled the photos for the last few months, staffers are now concerned they might not get the coveted shot despite recent changes, according to the outlet.